Unwanted Processes - How to (Part Two)

Tested on version 8 of TI!
OK, I actually tried the cmd file to start and stop all three TI background processes. There were some bugs in my earlier thoughts on how to do this. The following works if you save it as a cmd file as in trueimage.cmd :

START "C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageMonitor.exe"
NET START "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
START "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe"
call "C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImage.exe"
NET STOP "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
taskkill.exe /im schedhlp.exe
taskkill.exe /im TrueImageMonitor.exe


Hopefully, if you are interested in this, you know how to keep these three processes from starting. Be sure to stop them the first time before you use the CMD file for best results. This leaves some DOS boxes on the screen afterwards that have to be closed. I'll work on getting rid of those later.

 

All right, I've got this working about as elegantly as I was aiming for. After all, it's just a batch file. Here is the final code. I know that it does not look like it would work, but it does. It will start and stop all three background processes as needed. Tested on version 8 of TI.

START /B C:\Progra~1\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImageMonitor.exe
START /B C:\Progra~1\Common~1\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe
CALL "C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImage\TrueImage.exe"
taskkill.exe /im TrueImageMonitor.exe
taskkill.exe /im schedhlp.exe
NET STOP "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
EXIT

 

beenthereb4 -

Can I simply uncheck these startup entries with a startup manager and run manual updates without a problem?

 

That should work like a charm, except for the Acronis Scheduler 2 Service. For that one, go to "Control Panel" -- "Administative Tools" --- "Services" and set it to manual instead of automatic. It will be right at the top of services. Manual allows it to still start when you want it to.

 

Thanks, beenthereb4 -

I'll try it out and let you all know how it goes. I noticed in task manager that this stuff is chewing on 15M of memory!

 

Oops, although this worked yesterday, when I checked it today ------- it needed another line added:

START /B C:\Progra~1\Common~1\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe

I edited this into my earlier post!

Edit:
Seems like this has little interest, so I'll not be posting my further refinements.

 

Please don't stop posting refinements. I only just bought TI and am, obviously, still learning how best to use it in my environment. With my less than state of the art PC and am very interested in reducing overhead.

It looks like the last script you have posted is missing the line to start the acronis scheduler2 service. Right?

 

Definitely do not stop this thread.

The only reason why I am using TI is that the wkstn I am imaging cannot be rebooted too frequently. It needs to be live as long as possible.

And I don't like Windows services. Often I find they have resource leaks. Not to point any fingers but on a particular PC in NT 4.0 SP6, before TI it was running fine, after installing TI, I find that the PC reboots itself every now and then, and my diagnostics point to TrueImageMonitor.exe. And I do not have a virus problem. TI support is looking into this for me.

So this thread is very important. I am not using scheduling, so I don't need TI to be running all the time.

Keep on the good work.

 

beenthereb4,
for my own education, could you tell me how you found out which processes need to run with TI (schedulhlp, schedul2,TImonitor).

The service was easy enough, look in the services list, but the tasks, how did you figure the depedency.

I 've used InstallRIte, but that did not tell me the dependency.

Will try DependencyWalker.

Oh, another question is if I want to disable the tasks, delete the reg entries in CurrentVersion\Run, right ?

 

Well, I did not do anything complicated. I just used taskmanager to see what was running and then backtracked to see which came from Acronis folders. Then a bit of testing after endtasking those.

Yes, take the two out of run in the registry!

If there is a lot of interest in this, I'll turn it into a $5 windows program that does the registry work and everything without any dos box. However, it works fine as a batch file.

 

Oh, just saw this edit to the thread:

"It looks like the last script you have posted is missing the line to start the acronis scheduler2 service. Right?"

Yes, it's not there. But try it, the service will start by magic!

 

There's no taskkill.exe in Win XP, so that part of the script doesn't work.
Here's my (simple) script:


START /B C:\Progra~1\Common~1\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe
CALL "C:\Program Files\Acronis TrueImage\TrueImage.exe"
NET STOP "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
EXIT


If "c:\program files\acronis trueimage" is not your acronis TI program folder, edit the file to match your setup.

Save as somename.bat, put a shortcut in your start menu, and stick a sexy icon on it.

You don't need TrueImageMonitor.exe to make an image, so I left that part out.

You have to stop schedhlp.exe from the task manager. If you want to stop it from the script, you gotta find a copy of taskkill.exe somewhere.

 

Actually taskkill.exe comes with WinXP Pro and may be copied to WinXP home.

 

So I'd have to download a copy of XP Pro first...

Or use pskill from http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pskill.shtml

 

So here's my updated batchfile:


START /B C:\Progra~1\Common~1\Acronis\Schedule2\schedhlp.exe
CALL "C:\Program Files\Acronis TrueImage\TrueImage.exe"
NET STOP "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
pskill.exe schedhlp.exe
EXIT


with pskill.exe from http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/pskill.shtml in the same folder as the batchfile.

pskill.exe can go somewhere else if you specify the full path in the batchfile, or find another way to tell windows where it is.

 

Looks like you've come a long way from your first one.

 

So what does trueimagemonitor do if it's not needed?

 

It gives you a nice progress bar to look at:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=42407&highlight=trueimagemonitor

 

These copy/paste commands are great, aren't they?

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=42132

What about a batchfile that:
- starts with the 'create bootable rescue media' option,
- makes an image of your system partition,
- and ends with a 'burn to disk' command

If you start writing some lines, I'll mess 'em up and bitch about missing commands in XP Home, and we'll end up with the ultimate one-click method to make a bootable DVD with an image of your system...

 

Here a (working) BATCH file that will work in W2K/XP+ (aka Windows-2000)
(duno for W95/98/ME).

@cls
@echo off
START /B C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\ACRONIS\SCHEDU~1\schedhlp.exe
CALL C:\PROGRA~1\ACRONIS\TRUEIM~1\TrueImage.exe
NET STOP "Acronis Scheduler2 Service"
PSKILL.EXE schedhlp.exe
EXIT